Growing Tomatoes

I Y gardening. I miss my garden, but can't bring myself to grow a plant in a pot after enjoying a 2+ acre plot in front of the house at home. So I continue to miss it for the second spring. Maybe next year I will fold.

Recently, I was reading and came across the following tips for growing tomatoes (hence the sudden sadness at not having a garden to grow):
*Plant in an area that gets at least 6 hours of light each day.
* Give seedlings plenty of room to grow.
* By placing black or red plastic over the area you plan to plant in, the soil will warm and will mean earlier tomatoes.
* Bury tomato plants until there are just a few top leaves showing.
* When plants reach three inches, remove leaves on the bottom one inch of the stem; this decreases risk of fungus.
* Water regularly. Once fruit develops, withhold water a little to get the plant to concentrate its flavorful sugars.

I need a garden plot again.
PS - this is a picture of Denise, holding tomatoes and standing in the last garden I grew.

Pilgrims and Mini-sailboats

Happily I had a work-free Saturday and was able to attend the LDS social in Central Park. The activity was located between the Pilgrim statue and the mini-sailboat pond. Upon arriving, I realized that I had not previously visited this area of Central Park (maybe seeing more than the bottom hundred yards should be my goal for this summer). It was a beautiful day.

This pilgrim commemorates the landing of the pilgrims on Plymouth Rock in 1620. I am amazed at the courage of those men and women who braved the seas to attain religious freedom and so grateful for the sacrifices they made.


















These little sailboats were so cute! However I feel that if we would have said as much to the burly men working the remote controls, we wouldn't have gotten a very positive response. They seemed to be taking it quite seriously.



This was my favorite!

Spider

I think I am scared of spiders but this one looked interesting. I find it strange that some spiders choose to make their homes near water, I would think something more solid would be more appealing. More pretty flowers

Special Joy

I can't articulate how blessed I feel to have been given the opportunity to help present awards at the Brooklyn Special Olympics on Saturday. It was incredible to be surrounded by people who are not caught up in the things of the world and to simply enjoy their spirits. It was an amazing experience and I'm glad that Ash and Libby invited me to join them.

Lining up for the first race . . . I believe there were over 70 races scheduled for the day. My friends and I were asked to help by presenting the medals to the participants. The spirit of competition was fierce but all were overjoyed to receive a medal documenting their success. It was a humbling experience to witness their happiness. I hesitate to share many photos as I do not wish to invade anyone's privacy, but it was such an amazing experience that I had to share one photo.

At the end of each race, the participants were asked to be seated while waiting for all the teams to gather and the results of the race to be provided by the officials. After completing his race a young man was very sad because he was asked to wait for everyone else and he did not understand why he wasn't immediately given his medal. Another member of his team (who had earned a medal for participating in an earlier race) was sitting beside him, and upon witnessing his teammates abject disappointment, removed the medal from around his own neck and placed it over his friends head. When the caretaker tried to intervene, the giver simply told her his teammate needed it.

Thanks to Libby for researching the event and inviting us to join her.

And Ash for getting us there!
It was an extraordinary day for me.

Happy May Day!

Green-Wood Cemetery

I was invited to join some friends on an excursion to visit Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. I know it is a bit crazy but I love walking through cemeteries (during daylight hours) and reading headstones. So I gladly accepted and enjoyed a lovely afternoon wandering through approximately 600,000 graves. My favorite part is that you can simply wander and wonder about people's lives . . .

When we arrived at the entrance, Collin shared with us that a colony of monk parakeets who got loose at JFK while being transported from South America (during the 1960's) have made their home in the tallest spire. I thought for certain he must be teasing me, but sure enough, we were able to see the nest and many green birds! The landscape of the cemetery is beautiful, rolling hills dotted with tombstones and trees.
We were very near the site of the Battle of Long Island, fought during the Revolutionary War (visiting this site was the reason for the excursion I believe). Lovely view across the meadow.
Nature won.
I'm not so certain the guys were all that excited about posing for a photo, but after feeding them lots of brownies and cake, I think they may have felt obligated. I know how to get people to do what I want :)
Collin, Ryan, Jared, Brigham, Gabe

This was my favorite headstone. It looked like an unrolled scroll and there were no names or dates that I could discover.
I was surprised to see a CAUTION sign in the cemetery. At least they wouldn't have to move you far if you ignored the sign.
One of my more favorite path markers . . . I think it reminded me of home.
I kept getting distracted reading headstones . . . but they would slow down when they realized I was missing.
I Y cemeteries in the springtime!

Daffodils

I am aware that many different varieties of daffodils exist, probably thousands, but who knew that four could be found in a single walk? And in NYC none-the-less. It cheers me to be reminded that even in this not-so-clean city that true beauty can be found. After a bit of Google research, I have tentatively identified the following dafs that I noticed during my Sunday-afternoon stroll.

Trumpet Daffodils - White corona (trumpet or cup) on White perianth segments (petals)
Split-Cupped Daffodils - Yellow on Yellow
Split-Cupped Daffodils: Yellow on White
Poeticus Daffodils: Red-tipped Yellow on White
I know this isn't a daffodil, I find it interesting to observe trees too . . .

Riverside Park

The weather was beautiful on Saturday so a group of us went on an excursion to Riverside Park on the Upper West Side alongside the Hudson River. We wandered through the park and ended at Grant's Tomb. A long promenade in Riverside Park
Watching baseball. Joe, Jenna, Heidi, Whitney, Brigham, Collin, Ashley, Lyndee
There were many many trees

Heidi overlooking a baskeball game. In the background of the picture there are ball fields full of Little League teams playing softball.
I didn't recognize this flower, it looked like a type of groundcover but may have been a weed
Our intent was to see the trees in bloom, but there were actually very few with flowers
These flowers were on a bush - I really liked it and want to figure out what the name is

More daffodils!

G - R - A - N - T. Our tour guide (Collin) shared with us that Grant's tomb is the largest mausoleum in the United States and that General Grant and his wife Julia are entombed there.

"Let us have peace"
Ulysses S Grand and Julia D Grant
Eagles flank the front steps
I love stars!
Brigham, me, Collin, Ashley, Lyndee, Jamar, Joe, Jenna

It was such a lovely day in Riverside Park!

Best Part of Spring

Tulips and pansies and daffodils

I Y spring flowers!